Vintage Thunderbird Club International

so after much messing around checking for return line restrictions and such,i found a company that said they experienced the same thing i have fuel getting to hot.On a 100 degree day with the ac running the fuel tank gets incredibly hot and starts pushing fumes out of the fuel tank cap,they stated that on all new installs for the last couple of years they put a fuel pressure regulator from holley by the tank it has the return line built in and is preset for the sniper psi with a filter that is part of the assembly. They stated that as the fuel goes to the sniper and returns it gets super heated under the hood by placing the regulator next to the tank the excess fuel gets returned without getting exposed to the engine temps and is close to the return line in the tank. It makes sense to me i ordered everything and i will post how it turns out.I also have noticed that our tanks are up against the trunk on the back which im sure does not help with heat dissipation along with the exhaust running nearby.I thought about a pulse width modulator but along with the expense im just trying to avoid more wiring honestly.

ran it today and it is definitely promising,no hissing coming out of the tank we shall see on a long trip hopefully this weekend.

Yes, that makes total sense and it should work fine. The long run from the pressure regulator to the sniper unit might cause a little bit of pressure drop when fuel flow is high which you could compensate for in the fuel table if you start seeing it lean out under high load conditions.

drove the car on a four hour trip about a month ago in 100 degree plus weather,while the regulator by the tank did help(took much longer to heat the tank up)it still was percolating the fuel.so my next step is to insulate the tank from exhaust heat.i bought a foil product for radiant heat purposes says can be used for fuel tanks.My theory is when pushing her down the interstate with the ac going driving 75 or so the heat coming off of the engine is heating up the tank as well,as long as you are cruising on backroads its not an issue,But when pushing it hard in super hot weather the tank gets hotter and hotter.might be a while before i can take another long trip to test this theory but i have noticed the fuel tank temps dropped about 25 degrees just cruising around.

There are fuel coolers you can put on the return line if you want to get fancy

at this point iv begun to realize the tank is being heated up by the engine heat,iv looked for coolers but didn't find anything that i thought was promising.the fuel pressure regulator definitely helped but not an end all ,if you live in cooler temps probably would not have this problem but down here its been super hot.Plus i do drive the car i dont baby it.

as far as the fuel cooler id like to add, that everything is so condensed on our cars where would you put it that would not be subjected to the same heat.

The only place I could think of would be under the floor. Not great placement because it will pick up the heat of the pavement.

If you wanted to run a hose all the way to the front you could put it behind the grill in front of the radiator. It could be really small like a power steering cooler on an old Cobrajet.

The other alternative is a fuel pump controller to reduce the excess flow of fuel to the engine and reduce the flow of hot fuel back to the tank.